2019 Meeting Industry Trends to Watch

With 2019 upon us, and to help you prepare you for an amazing year of change, transition and growth–we’ve gathered meeting and conference trends from across the industry we feel are notable and that we will continue to track through 2019. ⁽¹⁾  

Below are a few of our favorites and insights:

• Global Outlook – Although there is conflicting information in recent reports, there are indications of a global slowdown that will likely be triggered by what is going on in the EU concerning some of the unknowns with Brexit. This will likely not impact the US market immediately but may have effects on our industry because of the strength of the dollar making it more difficult for international travels coming to the US.

• Top News in Hotels – Rates are going to continue to run high globally because of demand. Revenue per Available Room, also known as RevPar, is increasing globally and across the US. Some of the hottest cities for 2019 in North America are Las Vegas, New York, and Orlando. Additional US locations to watch this year include San Diego, Toronto, and Nashville. Globally, high demand cities for the upcoming year include São Paulo, Mexico City, London, Shanghai, Singapore, and finally, Moscow made the list because of their competitive rates based on the inventory from the Olympics.

• Air Booking & Group Travel – Airline ticket costs are on the rise because of fuel costs. The trend to allow individual mileage rewards toward a company’s airline fulfillment is emerging. Group online booking tools are gaining popularity for their ability to connect ground transportation to ticketing and group air travel making managing air travel and ground transportation for attendees seamless. More and more meetings and conference locations are being decided on based on an air cost analysis. Finally, airline capacity is increasing to meet the increase in traveler demand.

• Technology –There is a 60% increase in technology growth within the meeting and conferences space. Phy-digital is the future where the physical and the digital world collide. Live meetings with the integration of digital technology are far outperforming traditional virtual technologies. It is estimated that 75% of meetings planners will have some sort of phy-digital technology in their meetings. Finally, more event technologies on the horizon include event bots, facial recognition, voice-activated apps, go-pro robots and much more.

• Mobile Apps – Mobile apps are getting increasingly sophisticated with features such as facial recognition. Areas of anticipated growth within mobile apps include the agenda, pre- and post-attendee engagement, attendee behavior tracking, networking capabilities, and safety features.

• Meeting and Event Management – Some of the tried and true trends of the past remain constant including unique venues, local product sourcing, sustainable food and beverage options, unique room sets and innovative seating environments. Two of the newest trends are the personalization of the experience regardless of the size and localization; meaning bringing the local culture into the event and embracing the surroundings outside the hotels four walls as part of the attendee experience.

• Safety and Security Practices – California is releasing new and updated digital privacy laws coming in January 2020. GDPR is still trending with new countries being added and the Brexit implications. As it relates to event-level emergency policies and procedures, “duty of care” is still top of the list. The Exhibits and Meetings Safety and Security Initiative (EMSSI) continues to evolve and release industry-wide guidance for the cyber safety and physical safety of the meetings industry.

• Business Intelligence (BI) – BI and data analytics is still king. The rise of data scientists as a role within the industry is the newest emerging trend. It is no longer enough to collect and analyze data. This new role of data scientist will take the way the meetings industry utilizes data to help make smarter, more informed decisions to a whole new level.

If you would like to learn more about these topics and trends as well as others not mentioned here, you can watch the replay of Shauna McNaughton, HMCC, Sr. Director, Strategic Account Management, presenting Powerful Trends that will Impact Your 2019 Strategy.

(1) Sources used for M&IW Insights Report include BTN Articles, MGM’s Michael Dominiquez, CWT Annual Report, AMEX Annual Report, SmartMeetings, MeetingNet